Pre-E3 2008: Galactrix Preview

Share.

We take the next Puzzle Quest for a spin.

By Daemon Hatfield

Everyone loves Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and everyone's been anxious to see what its successor has in store. D3 Publisher brought Galactrix by the IGN office and it's looking even bigger and more complex than the original. Despite the extra layers of depth being added, D3 thinks it will have more appeal to casual gamers than Challenge of the Warlords. This is because the many features are better explained, as opposed to the first game where the player had to discover things on their own.

Galactrix is a sci-fi adventure set 20,000 years in the future as mankind finds itself on the brink of extinction, once again. While one of Puzzle Quest's designers at Infinite Interactive wrote the dialogue for the first game, this time around they've hired a professional writer. Infinite is located in Australia, and apparently the dialogue in Galactrix is filled with Australian colloquialisms that D3 liked so much they're leaving in for other territories. Your primary avatar will be your spaceship. Although you are a pilot, your ship takes center stage. Both ship and pilot will be upgraded along the way. As your pilot advances in levels, he can obtain better ships. Eventually, you'll have a stable of ships, allowing you to customize them in different ways and approach conflicts with different strategies. During your adventures you'll gather a crew made up of humans, robots and aliens.

Instead of the Bejewelled battles from Challenge of the Warlords (and the Othello battles of the Puzzle Quest spin-off Neopets), the puzzle aspect of Galactrix isn't based on an established game. At first glance it looks like Hexic, and it is another match-three game, but it operates as though it were in zero gravity. Pieces refresh in the direction of your move -- slide a tile up, and new pieces appear from the bottom of the screen. Once you get a feel for it, you should be able to control the flow of battle and keep your opponent from getting the matches they need.

Although the tiles are hexagons, a match can only be made in a straight line. Whereas a match-four previously gave us an extra turn, now we have to match at least five to go again. Also, there is now no penalty for making a wrong move, other than losing your turn.

Each color of tile provides different benefits. Your ship has shields that must be broken down before you'll take damage. Blue tiles will refill your shields. Reds improve your weapons, yellows raise your energy, and greens upgrade your computer. Your pools of these tiles can be used to perform upgrades, which act as the game's spells. White tiles provide intel, which provides your pilot with experience. There are mines on the battlefield that can be lined up to attack the opponent. A number on the face of each mine represents the amount of damage it will cause.

A long, long time ago, in a puzzle far, far away.

Instead of one overworld, there is now an enormous star map made up of dozens of solar systems. Each solar system is its own overworld, taking up the entire screen. These areas are presented in a very clean, minimalist style, with heavenly bodies and vessels drawn as wire frames. There are several jump gates in each system that will take you to different sections of the star map, but before you can use these gates you'll have to complete a mini-game. The universe of Galactrix is enormous.

Each solar system is governed by factions with their own systems of government. As long as you're in their good graces, the NPC ships flying around will be green and won't attack you, but you can still engage them if you choose. If a faction isn't happy with you, these ships will turn red and you'll encounter a lot of random battles. When a quest is available, a radar signal will be emitted from a planet or space station. Landing there will trigger a dialogue with an NPC who will give you instructions.

Galactrix will feature the same multiplayer modes as Challenge of the Warlords. That means the Xbox 360 and PC versions will be playable online, and the DS will include local multiplayer. DS players will be getting all the same content, with some cosmetic tweaks to the graphics and interface. Conversations are split between the two screens, for instance. But just like the original, DS owners aren't missing out on any gameplay.